B5 TDI battery upgrade

gotsoot said:

Does any body know whats behind the name "DEKA". I do

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Nope!

ok...I'll ask.

I ordered a bracket from IDparts for $20 and I was able to get a 94R battery from Farm & Fleet for $84.

I checked my local Walmart and they didn't carry it and when I looked up the Interstate brand it was something like $175.

I just ran into this thread. My 02 wagon 1.8t came stock with the larger battery but it was originally sold in Minnesota. I wonder why it has the larger battery, every other B5 Passat I've seen have the smaller unit.

I'm considering downgrading to the smaller one. I'm sure that it will perform just as well and I'm all about weight savings, every little helps and it's even cheaper

gotsoot said:

Does any body know whats behind the name "DEKA". I do

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Well?

oilhammer said:

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After a few frustrating no-start days without a boost due to temperatures below minus-20s degrees Celsius, before breaking down to buy a new battery, my last straw was to pull the battery out of the car, bring it inside the house and put it on a trickle charger near a heating duct. The car started today under somewhat milder temps but it took a long time of cranking and even then I was very lucky that the engine started because the cranking speed was slowing noticeably before it fired up.

I found out that the existing battery is actually a Mercedes-Benz branded one quite a bit smaller (just over 10 inches in length) than the battery tray that someone had stacked together a bunch of cut-up lengths of an old timing belt as a spacer.

However, I was glad to learn that my car already has the bracket to accommodate the larger battery so I'll be shopping for a 94R/H7 battery in the coming days. My local stealership is REALLY a stealer - I bought an oil filter for $24 something and an OEM battery would have cost $139 plus tax. I declined on the battery and I'm now kicking myself for having bought the oil filter that I'm now tempted to return it. Never again will I buy anything from there unless I absolutely have to.

Thanks very much, oilhammer!!

Stacks of timing belts... priceless!

The dealer supplied battery is one of the best you can buy, and its not a terrible premium to pay rather than screw around in the cold. I believe the larger battery is about same price as the 72ah one. The dealer/vw supplied Varta is a known quanity. If I were you I'd trade your fuel filter in on a Varta.

It has already been discussed here that recent dealer batteries are not sourced from Varta in Germany but rather from some domestic manufacturer. The person who helped me did not seem aware of different part numbers for Diesel applications, certainly not the higher capacity one and I certainly wasn't going to test him with my very limited command of French. He also said that the CCA was 640 and I'm quite certain it's a group 41 unit originally called for (remember, my model does not exist here; I actually inquired about a battery for a B4 Passat TDI; the specific model did not seem to matter anyway as he proceeded to tell me that they only stock two types of batteries - the smaller ones for gassers and big ones for Diesels.

So on principle of not taking kindly to being gouged for an oil filter, I'll take my chances with a non-OEM battery and get one from Canadian Tire, Walmart or even Costco.

Bump on this thread. I replaced the battery in my B5 Audi A4 over the weekend with a Bosch 94R battery - my car had the hold-down bracket on the right in the below pic to accommodate the larger battery:



Strangely, the battery still seemed to be a little undersize in the tray; I figure I had about an inch of clearance on the length. I'll take some pictures to show what I mean. Kinda wondering if I should have gotten a group 49 battery instead... The OEM "DJ" part was quite expensive at the dealer even with the discount I get.

The Bosch batteries are made by Exide and I've had good luck with them. Bosch apparently gets 10 bucks per as a royalty to use their name.

VW dealer in Maretta Ga. batteries are Interstate Batteries but they are cheaper then the Interstate dealer especially if you have a VW coupon.

I work with batteries a lot (backup generators and fire pump are the worst abusers of Batteries as they charge 24x7x365)

So the Basics:

CCA is critical if you are in cold temperatures. Lots of amps is what starts a car, not AH. Bigger batteries have more CCA. AH is meaningless and I have no idea why they even have that. You also have to know what AH rate is (1, 2, 5, 10 hour etc). CCA is at a given temperature (0?) 32 deg (I would have to look it up but does not change.

Cold Batteries: They love the cold, they last forever. Sadly, the chemistry is not the least bit excited (pun) and does not put out the same oomph. So what looks like a bad batter (or deterioration in the cold) is the characteristic of the chemistry.
By the time you get to –20, you have lost ¾ of the output. That’s why CCA is important in the cold, the more you start with (pun) the more you have when its cold.
We have had the original battery since 05, I will change it next summer as the starting in cold temps is getting marginal. In my truck I had the same battery 15 years and just replaced it as some indications it might be going bad (bad starter actually). It was time for safety sake but that tells you how long they last in cold temps (diesel take a lot more ooomph with glow plugs and the compression so more often for them)

Heat: Batteries Hate heat, though they sure put out good until they fizzle. Heat accelerates the chemistry and the breakdown. For each 10 deg above 77 you cut battery life in half (yhep). Under the hood in Texas or Florid or X, its always hot. Ergo, short battery life but good performance before they destroy themselves.

Make Does Matter!!!!: JCI has a good reputation because they use good materials, process and procedures. I would go with the Interstate or the Varga (VW provided). Either should be good. Sometimes a store changes and you don’t know it. If you can’t confirm its not worth it.
Cat used to use Exide. In my applications they would last less than 2 years. We swtihced to the Interstate’s and I can get 10 years. For a standby gen application anything over 3 years is great. 10 years is Jaw dropping incredible (and they are still working!)
The only ones I have seen that come close are something called DBMC out of the Carolinas (or used to be, they may be gone, they were regional only). We got them at the OEM set of the Fire Pumps and we got 7 years out of them (one dropped the plates blew up so we changed them but they were still putting out though the autopsy showed the plates disintegration which is probably what cause the short).
Cheap batteries get you short life in heat and don’t put out in the cold well, or fall off so rapidly that they are useless.

Get the Varta VW or the Interstate, its worth it and you will get many times the life.

If hot climate keep the small Varta, you don’t need the bigger one.

IB4 "but Ah"

My suggestion to those on both sides of the epic battery wars remains: Look up how DIN tests for Ah and how SAE tests for CCA, and then decide for yourself, based on scientific fact, which testing procedure most closely mimics what you need from you car battery for your weather conditions.

Smokerr is very right!
Sulphation is the culpret that hurts a battery in the heat.
It is a chemical reaction and every chemical reaction known to man speeds up with heat!
For that very reason I store my off season batteries in the deep freezer.
Skidoo battery in summer and seadoo battery in winter.
Just pull them out let them thaw and turn the key dont even have to charge them

A bit off topic - but, I just used my original Varta to jump start a car that sat in my driveway for 6+ months. The battery (Varta) was last charged and used on my camper as a back-up while boondocking at the PSU vs. Michigan football game in early November. I hit a meter to it and it still showed 12.4 volts. Fired up the dead car right away with jumper cables. I replaced it with an Interstate "blemished" a while back but more due to time than performance.

I have a Varta for start on my Lister Petter genset. its approx 8-9 years oldand came out of a 2005 tdi

thundershorts said:

I have a Varta for start on my Lister Petter genset. its approx 8-9 years oldand came out of a 2005 tdi

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Ya but you have decompressors on that engine!
You can start one of those with a hand crank or lawn mower battery!

Vacuum Tubes

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Then pop both ends of the vacuum tube running from the firewall pass-through grommet to the brake booster. There will be a hiss when you remove it from the booster, that is normal. Take care not to kink this tube.

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Old thread, but looking for some guidance on removing the vacuum tubes -- are they the silver tubes pictured? I gave up after an hour in 20 degrees trying to get the battery out. I remember it being difficult last time I did it and this time I broke some of the plastic that holds in the cowl...too cold to work around plastic.

Thanks

Old thread, but looking for some guidance on removing the vacuum tubes -- are they the silver tubes pictured? I gave up after an hour in 20 degrees trying to get the battery out. I remember it being difficult last time I did it and this time I broke some of the plastic that holds in the cowl...too cold to work around plastic.

Thanks

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No, not the silver tubes. The black vacuum tubes in front of the battery. They are plastic and probably brittle at cold temps, so be careful. The battery will not lift straight unless you also pull off the plastic trim piece. To do that, you need to remove the wiper arms and three spring clips (one on each end and in the middle).